Mayor, business group shut public out of meeting

Jeff Coen and David Heinzmann, Chicago Tribune reporters

Mayor Rahm Emanuel met secretly Thursday with a handpicked group of business leaders he has tapped to develop a jobs plan for Chicago and shoulder the hosting duties for next spring's G-8 and NATO summits.

Emanuel chairs the publicly funded World Business Chicago, which released a series of resolutions late in the evening, aimed at quelling questions about its increasing influence at City Hall and its near-total lack of transparency.

The agenda for the meeting included adopting resolutions on conflict of interest and transparency, but neither the group nor the mayor's office would disclose the meeting location — at a River North steakhouse — until it was well under way. Emanuel's office and the group's leader rejected Tribune requests to open the meeting.

"The meeting is not open to press as the board is voting on a number of things that will be announced in the near future," Emanuel spokeswoman Chris Mather said in an email. The mayor's office invited the Tribune to cover Emanuel's post-meeting remarks over dinner with the business leaders.

Although World Business Chicago receives about $1 million a year in taxpayer money, it meets behind closed doors and answers only to the mayor. The group's influence has only grown since the Tribune reported last month that its private operation appears to clash with Emanuel's pledge to make city government more transparent.

Late Thursday, the group released a list of proposals to begin disclosing its donors, financial statements and portions of meeting minutes it deems to be not sensitive. The meetings themselves — where executives make economic development decisions including whether to recommend the city give taxpayer subsidies to corporations — will remain closed.

The group of business elites has received millions of dollars in city funding over the years and traditionally functioned as corporate ambassadors for Chicago. But the new mayor has added 30 people to the 48-person board, whose members are linked to more than $1.2 million in political contributions to Emanuel. He has pledged to expand their role in city affairs.

"With regard to their involvement in WBC, the members of the board have no agenda other than to help the city," said Michael Sacks, vice chairman of the group and managing partner at Grosvenor Capital Management, a firm linked to more than $587,000 in campaign contributions to Emanuel.

The group has billed itself as an economic development arm for Chicago, aiding the mayor's office in encouraging new business. After the city inspector general criticized the WBC board for recommending financial incentives for its own members, the group said it would re-examine its policy on conflicts of interest.

In its release Thursday, the group said it would now require board members to disclose potential conflicts to one another, but not publicly. It also says the panel can still advocate for government benefits or enter into other transactions involving a conflict of interest, as long as the conflicted board member doesn't participate in the decision.

"To fulfill our mission, we need to have the ability to engage in confidential discussions in executive session," Sacks said in an email after the meeting. "This is common best practice and important to our mission. Today's actions should not be interpreted as precluding in any way opening meetings or a portion of meetings in the future or otherwise trying to engage the public."

The group added a new and still-developing role last week when it announced it would be "leading host committee activities" for the Group of 8 and NATO summits, which will bring many of the world's business and political leaders to Chicago in May. World Business Chicago duties will range from organizing hospitality and promotions summit events to raising private donations to defray city costs.

Emanuel said last week the summits are a coup and the group would help President Barack Obama to showcase the city.

"It's the president's hometown and he's going to show the world his hometown," he said.

But Emanuel could not provide specifics when asked about where money collected by World Business Chicago would go. City officials said they won't have specifics to disclose about the financing of the events until the details are worked out with federal officials.

"We're going to be raising private resources to help defer the cost, so city taxpayers don't get that," Emanuel said. "What they get is all the upside."

Sacks said assisting with the summits is compatible with the group's mission of showcasing Chicago as a global city, and that private funds it raised will be used to defray city costs.

While it is common for local government leaders to tap business executives to form a host committee to handle hospitality and promotional events for events such as the G-8, Emanuel has gone a step further by shifting some of the management and organizational responsibilities of running the event to the private entity.

The group has hired a longtime top aide to former Mayor Richard Daley to head its work on the summits. Lori Healy, now a principal at real estate firm John Buck Co., was president of Chicago 2016, the city's failed bid to win the Olympic Games.

Emanuel and the WBC also announced last week that the group would lead the effort to put together a jobs plan for Chicago, which falls in line with his major campaign pledges to make the creation of jobs a priority.

In announcing its role, WBC did not say it would set city policy, but that the effort will involve a leadership team that "will work closely with representatives from the mayor's office and will engage members of the City Council and other public officials and institutions." Deputy Mayor Mark Angelson is an ex officio member of the WBC leadership team on the jobs plan.

The group did not release any additional details about its economic development role after Thursday's meeting, and Emanuel did not speak to reporters. In the past, the mayor and Sacks have responded to questions about the group's secrecy by citing the need for confidentiality when they are helping to lure businesses to Chicago.

"WBC is always looking for innovative ways to add value and opportunity to the business landscape," Sacks said earlier this week. "The efforts surrounding the G-8 and NATO summits and the city's economic development plan are two examples of the way our staff and directors are trying to help."